Second Chances
by StormySerenity
Summary: Fi. Annie. Weird stuff. No romance.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: all characters belong to Disney as far as I know. No copyright infringement is intended; no money is being made.   
  
Stormy says: This story begins at the end of the "have a weird Thanksgiving with Annie and the aliens" episode. Comments welcome at mbaring@powernet.net  
  
Ep 1: Friends  
  
"Annie, it's for you!"  
Annie dashed up the steps into the house and grabbed the phone away from Jack. "Mom? Dad?"  
Their voices came through a sprinkling of static, "Happy Thanksgiving Annie!"  
Fi pointed up the stairs; "You can take the phone in my room." Annie nodded and went up, still talking to her parents over the sound of guy football talk in the next room. She had time to notice the sign on the door- Fi's room- as she went in. "Mom you wouldn't believe the time we had trying to get here..."  
  
It was over an hour later when they said goodbye. Annie sat on the end of Fi's bed and hugged the phone; it had been so good to hear her parents' voices again! It sounded like they were having a good time in Pakistan and their work was going better than anyone had expected. Annie was happy to report all the stuff she'd been up to on the tour bus and all the songs she'd written.   
The smell of apple pie was coming in the half open door and Annie hopped up to go get some. But she hopped too fast; her foot caught the leg of Fi's desk and a folder full of papers slithered to the floor. Annie caught her balance and turned on the desk lamp so she could see to pick the stuff up.  
  
Dear Annie, remember I said all the engraving had worn off my dad's ring? That's not exactly what happened...  
Annie hadn't meant to read anything, but her eyes landed on the first words and slid along them. Then she was too fascinated to stop. What was this? A letter to her, but why hadn't it been sent? Or maybe it was Fi's creative writing assignment!  
Under the first letter were others, and scraps of letters that had never been finished.  
Dear Annie, I am having a great time here with Aunt Melinda and my cousins, but sometimes I feel like part of me got left on the bus with you guys.  
Dear Annie, Seriously? Mom was melting and Jack was a goofy fortuneteller? Wish I had a picture of that one. :) But the Will o the Wisp promised nobody from the spirit world would bother my family. So what's going on???  
Dear Annie, When you talk about all that weird stuff happening I really wish I could be with you to try and protect everybody. But I can't so I pray for you. The banshee showed me this... it was LIGHT, bright light that went up and up forever. I don't know if it's God or what, but I feel like my dad's connected to it now. So I pray to that.  
...No. This was getting way too personal. Annie shoved everything back in the folder and put it back on the desk. She felt bad now about reading that stuff. But if any of the story was true, a Will O the Wisp, magic rings, visits from the spirit world.... Annie looked down at the ring she wore on her thumb. It didn't get warm or cold, or do anything to signal her that it might be magic.  
Carey's voice called from downstairs, "Hey Annie, you off the phone?"  
"Yeah!"  
"Want pie?"  
"Sure!"  
In the kitchen Annie found Carey taking a pie out of the oven and Fi watching him like she didn't trust his pie-holding abilities. Molly was on the barstool next to Fi like they'd been talking. When Annie came in she was immediately swarmed by the two little girls, Fi's cousins, who pulled out a chair for her, set a plate and fork in front of her, and asked if she wanted milk to drink and vanilla ice cream on her pie. Annie said yes to all and then asked, "How many pies have you guys had today?"  
"Four." Maggie said. "Mom made two but we ate most of them, we made one but it burned so we scooped out the inside and we're going to turn it into applesauce tomorrow, and Fi made this one." She started thinking aloud trying to calculate how many apples for how many pies for eleven people.  
The last pie was served up to Annie and Molly, and Fi had a little bowl of ice cream 'to keep them company.' Annie kept quiet and ate, listening to Fi and Molly talk.  
"...asked Annie to tour with the carnival but she said..."  
"...in the school play, I can't figure out why..."  
"...missed you Fiona..."  
"...got an email from Grandpa Colin, he said..."  
Annie realized the two little girls were looking at her appealingly. She said, "What's up?"  
"Um, Annie?"   
"Would you do us a big favor?"  
"And sing something for us?"  
Fi looked over. "I forwarded them the sound files of some of your songs, they're your biggest fans."  
"Um, ok. In a little bit." Annie said, a little embarrassed.  
"We'd love to hear you." The girls' mother, Melinda Campbell, came around the kitchen bar.  
Molly nodded. "Hey why don't we all sing? I can't think of a better way to celebrate. You want to get our guitars, Carey?"  
"Go on Carey, you've had enough pie." Fi scooped up the last of her ice cream and got up to leave her bowl by the sink and then vanish upstairs. She returned carrying her father's guitar in its case.  
"I didn't know you played, I mean, really played." Annie said.  
"Yeah well, I've been taking lessons. Wanted to surprise Mom."  
"Consider me surprised."  
Carey returned, carefully balancing with two guitar cases. He had Annie's flute box stuck under one arm and another box stuck under the other. "Your guitar, my guitar, Annie's flute... and this was on the porch, I nearly broke a leg tripping over it. It looks really weird."  
It did. It was a wooden box tied shut with strange scratchy string with clear postage tape over that. A battered label had Annie's name and Melinda Campbell's address.  
"It's for me."  
"You think it's from your parents? Sure looks like it came from the other side of the world."  
"I dunno. Look at this stuff." Annie got a piece of the string off and held it up. "It's, like, hemp or something."  
"Vegetable fiber. Very primitive." Fi said, and offered a pair of scissors.  
Annie wrestled the box open. Inside, protected between layers of dried leaves, was a ring with a wide silver band and a rounded blue stone set in it.  
"That's beautiful."  
"Is there a note in with it?"  
"No, nothing." Annie tried the ring on her fingers. She slipped Fi's ring off her thumb to try the new one on. It fit there best. "Fi? Maybe you should wear this again, since I have one of my own." She dropped the Celtic silver ring into Fi's hand.  
  
Everything stopped.   
"Well, my duck, looks like you get another chance to choose." A little ball of light was bobbing in front of Annie's frozen face.  
"You're gone! I deleted you!" Fi said in disbelief.  
"I'm not that easy to get rid of, not with everything I've got behind me. Don't you want to know what I did to your family?"  
"Let them go." She wanted to scowl and leave it at that but she had to say, "What do you mean I get another chance?"  
"They'll be fine. Won't remember a thing. And I mean ye have a chance to get back your connection to the spirit world. Because of her. If you put the ring on, it'll undo yer spell. Ye'll be back 'online' with us. Are ye going to do it?"  
Something strange was happening to Annie, it was like a golden glow around her, light hardening into a visible shield. Fi didn't have time to pay attention. "If I do that you and everybody else in the spirit world will be after us again. Just unfreeze my family and get out. I don't want anything to do with it."  
"Quite a change."  
"Just go."  
"All right. Never stay where I'm not wanted. If you really want to leave little Annie and the other one in the line of fire without your help that's fine..."  
"Wait, what other one? What's going to happen?" It was too late. The Will O the Wisp had vanished like a blown candle. A moment later everything came back to life.  
Annie held out her hand to admire the ring. "I think this is lapis lazuli, the stone I mean. My mother had a necklace a little like this, one of the tribes we stayed with in Brazil gave it to her."  
Fi was thinking. She was happy. She didn't want to get involved. ...leave little Annie and the other one in the line of fire... But was getting involved and losing her own peace any worse than being on the outside, knowing something was going on that she couldn't see? Knowing her family might be in danger and not being able to see that danger for them? And... maybe, maybe, there would be a chance to see her father again.  
That did it. Fi slid the ring onto her thumb and watched the pattern glow a warm gold for a moment.  
"Ok, what first?" Annie blew a note on her flute.  
"In The Darkness, always start with that." Molly said, "Then maybe One in a Million so Fi can hear it?"  
"Sounds good." Carey strummed the first note.   
  
They sang until nearly midnight, some songs that everyone knew so everyone could sing along. Even Ned who always said he couldn't carry a tune in a bucket came in to holler along. Annie sang To Dream About You, nervous with only two guitars for backup, but everybody liked it. Then Maggie and Miranda demanded In The Darkness again, so everybody sang that, and then suddenly it was bedtime and they had to figure out how eleven people were going to find space to brush their teeth and sleep in one suburban house and one tour bus.  
Annie ended up in a sleeping bag on the floor of Fi's room since Maggie and Miranda wanted to sleep on the bus one night just to see what it was like, and Annie's little room in the bus simply didn't have space for three.  
"Um, Fi? You awake?" Annie whispered into the darkness.  
"Yeah. Can't sleep, just thinking."  
Annie didn't want to say anything, but her conscience insisted. "When I was in here with the phone, I knocked some of your papers over. Those... letters to me. I didn't mean to look at them I swear, but I just saw the first line and then I couldn't stop. I'm really sorry. You can be mad if you want."  
"Nah. I'm not mad. They had your name on them after all even if I didn't mean to send them."  
"Is it true? About the spirit world?"  
"Yeah."  
"Whoa. I knew you were into weird stuff but you're, like..."  
"In up to my neck, at least I was before I met you."  
"That's... whoa."   
There was silence for a while then Fi said, "I know Mom calls you her sort of adopted daughter. You can think of me as your adopted sister too. If you want."  
Annie was surprised. "Yeah. I'd like that a lot. Thanks."  
"Something happened today... but I'm falling asleep, I'll tell you in the morning."  
"Ok."   
Sometime in the wee early hours Annie dreamed that the panther was there, curled up at her feet like a housecat. She half woke but of course nothing was there, and if the sleeping bag was pressed down like a weight had been resting there, Annie was too sleepy to notice.  



	2. Second Chances ep 2

Disclaimer: all characters belong to Disney as far as I know. No copyright infringement is intended; no money is being made.   
  
Notes: The reunion in this chapter deserves much more space, like a whole one part fic on that subject. Someday it will get written, whether or not I'm the lucky one to write it. And thanks to Lenoir for the title! ^_^  
  
Second Chances  
Ep 2: Lifeblood  
  
Fi was in a pep rally, clapping and cheering along with the rest of the sophomore class when she noticed a girl sitting on the bottom row of the bleachers. She wasn't cheering; she was looking down at her lap, probably reading a book though Fi couldn't imagine anyone reading in this din. From this angle all Fi could see was the back of her head: skin the color of chocolate, hair even darker pulled up into a tight bun, an intricate gold earring, and the collar of a lavender sweater.   
Then someone above tossed a crumpled paper and hit the girl in the back. She turned to give the crowd a venomous look and Fi saw her face.  
"Rebecca!" Fi whispered and the sound was lost in shouting and the stamping of feet. Rebecca Habib, near immortal, Molly's best friend. Eyes of an old woman, face of an African princess. ...She is the Nile that flows forever... Fi had expected never to see Rebecca again and when Rebecca found out Fi was in this school she would run away again.  
Fi pulled a notebook out of her backpack and turned to a blank page. She wrote:   
  
Rebecca-I go to school here too. Don't worry, I won't tell anybody about you or hang around you or anything. I didn't tell my mom anything before. So you don't have to leave. BELIEVE ME. Signed, Fiona Phillips  
  
She thought, then added: P.S. if you want to be friends that's cool with me too.  
Fi tore the note out of her notebook and folded it up. She'd have to pass it in the crowd heading out of the gym after this pep rally was over.  
She did, and in the hall after last period a hand grabbed her wrist. Rebecca said, "Thank you." And vanished into the crowd.  
  
Friday was the winter survival field trip, all of Mr. Mason's science classes went together. They were split into teams and had to build a shelter, start a fire, and explain how they would survive if they were lost. Fi had been looking forward to the trip. She didn't get a lot of chances to get out in the wilderness and she missed it.   
Fi piled off the bus with the rest of the class, already talking with her team about what kind of shelter to build. On her team were her friends Cindy and Cameron, and a boy named Zack who reminded Fi of Clu since he was always walking around in his own little world.  
Mr. Mason held up his hands, "Whoa you guys, a few rules! Our area is marked off with orange rope. Stay inside the rope! That's a cliff over there, it's a hundred feet and you don't want to fall off! Check your fireplace with one of us teachers before you light anything! Got it?"  
"Got it!" The students yelled.  
"We have two hours. Go crazy!"  
The kids scattered, looking for places to put their shelters.  
"Fi, Cam, Zack, over here!" Cindy called. "What if we put the tarp between these trees, and another one over here for a windbreak?"  
Fi studied the spot. It was a little close to the edge, but still inside bounds and the trees were the right distance apart. "Looks good to me."  
"Ok. C'mon guys, get your stuff out."  
Fi pulled her tarp out of her bag and handed it to the boys, "Here, and I've got more rope in case you don't have enough."  
While the other three took a minute to argue about tying on the tarps, Fi looked over the edge. The slope was almost straight up and down. No way anyone but a mountain goat could go up it. At the bottom were bushes next to the road. Not at all like looking off a city skyscraper. Not at all.  
Definitely, stay inside the rope.  
"Fi, can you come hold this?"  
"Coming."  
  
A wind picked up just as they got their fire going, threatening to blow the tarps down until Cindy and Zack reinforced them with sticks. Cameron and Fi crouched by the fire, feeding it small sticks and trying to block the wind with their bodies.  
"Excuse me."  
Fi looked up. There was Rebecca, holding an iron pot. "Hi."  
"Can I borrow some fire? Ours went out.  
"Borrow fire?" Cam was stumped.  
Rebecca crouched down with them in the shelter. "The early pioneers did it. If the house fire went out a child was sent to the neighbor's to bring back a pan of hot coals to restart the family fire."  
"Cool!"  
"You can have some fire in a minute, I don't think it's big enough now to spare any."  
"Put your wood next to the fire to dry it, then it won't smoke so much."  
Cam looked really impressed. "Whoa, that's cool. I wish you were on my team."  
"Thank you." Rebecca tipped her head and smiled. Even in such a simple gesture she didn't look like an ordinary girl.  
"How do you do this? I don't think we have any coasl, do we make a fire in your pan?"  
"Try it, put in some tinder and little sticks." The three of them bent over the fire and the pot, transferring burning twigs and trying not to scorch their fingers.  
When the fire in the pot seemed to be going ok, Rebecca stood up carefully balancing her pan. She walked very slowly back to where her team had set up camp.  
Fi stacked twigs in a Lincoln-logs square around the fire so they'd dry faster, then Cameron suggested they pull up two flat stones to make a miniature windbreak for the fire. When time was almost up, Mr. Mason went around checking shelters and handing out grades.  
"Nice work guys, you get an A. You can start taking it down now, there's a storm coming."  
"Ok." Cindy reached for the ropes holding the tarps on and Zack went to fill a bucket with old snow to put out the fire.  
The air felt heavier; a storm was definitely coming. Sudden wind snatched the tarp out of Cindy's hands. It caught in a tree just inside the rope barrier. Cindy and Fi both went to get it.  
Fi felt the ground shift under her feet. She gasped, "What!"  
"What was that?"  
Another slight lurch, and a rumble. Fi shoved her friend back towards solid ground. That shove was too much. Solid ground suddenly wasn't. Fi grabbed for anything stable, but nothing was. A yard of dirt, trees, and all slid over the side of the cliff carrying Fi with it.  
She remembered falling, hitting things, drowning in dirt, a sharp pain as something tore into her arm, then nothing.  
  
"Ow!"  
"Geometry can't be that painful, Annie."  
Annie laughed, "It's not the math. Something zapped my finger. So anyway, what's with these parallelograms again?"  
Ned turned the book around so Annie could see. "A parallelogram has two sides that are..." and he was off into an explanation Annie did her best to follow. They were in the bus's tiny dining room so Annie had space to spread out her notebooks and Ned could help her. The door to the boys' room was right there and every few minutes Jack would poke his head out to offer advice. Clu and Carey were inside playing playstation.   
A few parallelograms later the bus phone rang. Molly picked it up. Annie heard, "Hello?... This is she... What? What happened?  
The tone of those last words made everyone in the bus go quiet. The boys looked out of their room, Ned and Annie turned to look at Molly, Irene took her eyes off the road long enough to glance back. Then she pulled the bus into a parking lot and parked.  
Molly said, "Ok.... Ok. Call me if there's any change. Just a moment." Then she held out the phone and said, "Irene. I need you. To take this call."  
Irene took the phone. Molly ducked into her room, sat, and buried her face in a pillow.  
Jack said very quietly, "I have never seen mom's face that white before."  
"Is Molly crying?" Annie whispered.  
Irene closed the phone. Everyone looked at her.  
"Fi was in an accident on her school field trip. She's in the hospital in Seattle but she'll be ok." Irene leaned in the door of Molly's room, "Mol, we're turning the bus around and heading over there as fast as the speed limit. Ok?"  
The back of Molly's head nodded.  
"If you need anything, holler."  
Another nod. Irene pulled the door closed. "Molly needs some time to herself."  
"Yeah, we know about mom hysteria. You did the same thing when I broke my leg." Clu offered, nodding sagely.  
"Mmhm, and my mom when I fell in the river." Annie added. Then the mom-freak-outs contest ended and everyone got serious. "Are you sure Fi's ok? What happened?"  
Ned called, "buckle up back there!" as he turned the bus onto the interstate. Everybody buckled, or at least sat, or at least held on.  
"What I gather, they were on top of a low cliff and there was a landslide, the whole cliff face broke away. Fi was at the top when the whole thing went. She ended up at the bottom with a broken arm and ankle and a mild concussion, but nothing that won't heal."  
"How long 'til we get there?"  
"Three hours at least, could be more like four with traffic." Ned replied.  
Annie's attention for math was shot, and since her tutor was now driving she could excuse taking a break. But what was there to do but worry?  
  
Finally they reached the hospital. Ned pulled the bus up to the front door and Molly rushed out. Jack and Annie crammed through the narrow door after her.   
Hospital personnel recognized a frantic mother and showed them to Fi's room immediately.  
Jack's first reaction was, "Oh my gosh you look awful!"  
Fi rolled her eyes. "Thanks, I feel awful. Hi mom. Hi Jack. Hi Annie. Don't freak out mom, it's not as bad as it looks."  
Fi sure looked pretty bad. Every inch of her was covered with bandages or bruises and her right arm was in a cast. Fi's stuffed alien was sitting next to her pillow.   
"You sure it's not?"  
"Well I did fall off a mountain."  
Annie couldn't help grinning at that, and finally Molly did too. "So what happened, baby?"  
"If you don't mind talking about it." Jack put in.  
Fi shrugged one shoulder, "I don't mind, but I don't remember much. I pushed Cindy back away from the edge then suddenly everything was sliding. It was the creepiest thing. Then there was dirt and stuff falling on me and I was falling and then zowie, the lights went out. I remember some weird dreams then I woke up here with the world's worst headache."  
Jack said, "I'm going to find the guys and the bus." He zipped out.  
"So is there anything we can get you?" Annie offered.  
"I'm all right. Hey mom, you probably don't want to read that-"  
Molly had picked up some kind of medical charts and was reading through them. She looked up and said quietly, "Rebecca?"  
Fi looked away and didn't answer.  
"Talk to me! This says something about a blood transfusion that I was not told about-"  
"Mom I don't remember!"  
"And a name, her name. Fiona, was she there?"  
Fi quit trying to look 'ok' for her mother. Her face sagged into lines of pain and exhaustion and her eyes flashed a plea for help past her mother's shoulder.  
Annie spoke up, "Whatever it is, can't it wait a bit? Fi's in bad shape."  
"Oh baby I'm sorry. I was just shocked for a minute there."  
"S'ok." Fi had to take another breath to speak again. "Are you guys staying? Will you be here tomorrow?"  
"Yeah. We'll park the bus at Melinda's."  
"Ok. Hey Annie, thanks for coming in. I'll get out of here in a few days they we can hang out 'kay... sis?"  
"Ok!" Annie grinned.  
They seemed to be saying goodbye. Molly very carefully hugged her daughter, and they went out.   
In the hall a doctor met them, "Are you Mrs. Phillips?"  
Molly pounced. "What was that about a blood transfusion? I wasn't told about that on the phone!"  
Annie felt eyes on her back. She turned. An African-American girl with jeweled pins in her hair leaned around the corner. Annie saw her arms were full of flowers. She saw Molly, her dark eyes widened, and she stepped back out of sight.  
The doctor was saying, "...immediate transfusion was necessary... at the scene, one of the students with compatible blood."  
"A student? Not an adult?"  
"Yes, I'm sure. We didn't say that on the phone because we didn't know, her injuries were more severe than they looked..."  
Annie didn't really understand this. She walked away, turned the corner, and found the girl with the flowers waiting patiently in a stairwell.  
"Hey-did you come to see Fi Phillips? Her mom's a little upset but she won't bite or anything."  
The girl looked at Annie coldly, "No, I'm not here to see her."  
"Um, the tag on those flowers does say 'to Fi.' Are there two people named Fi in this hall?"  
A sigh. "Are you a friend of hers?"  
"Yeah. I travel on the tour bus. My name's Annie Thelen."  
"Do you have a pen?"  
Annie rummaged in her purse and found one. The girl wrote something on the back of the flower tag. "Will you please give this to Fi?"  
"Sure." Annie took the bouquet. The flowers were all orange and white and they smelled heavenly.  
"Go on."  
"Wait, will you tell me your name?"  
"No." The short reply was softened by a brief smile, flash of white teeth against brown skin.  
Annie shrugged and went to deliver the flowers. "Fi, delivery."  
Fi looked at the tag, turned it over and read the back. "From who?"  
"A black girl who wouldn't tell me her name."  
"Rebecca." Fi said very quietly, "Her name is Rebecca, but don't tell mom you saw her."  
"Fi, what's going..." Annie stopped mid-question, looking out the door, "Too late. They're talking out there."  
"Oh no!"  
"Wait, stay put, I'll spy."  
  
"Rebecca." Molly said with some unreadable emotion in her voice. Anger? Betrayal? Relief?  
"It's me. Please don't get mad at Fiona, I made her promise not to tell you I was in her school."  
"And of course your mother, my Rebecca, is too busy to see me."  
Rebecca looked down and nodded, "We're sorry for leaving that way. Both times."  
"And if Fi told me she had seen you, you would have to leave again."  
"Yes."  
"I see."  
Annie didn't. She felt guilty for spying, no matter how important it was to Fi. She silently promised never to get into other people's private business again, even by accident.  
Molly closed her eyes for a long minute then smiled. "Tell your... tell my Rebecca... she can email me. No sight or sound you know."  
Rebecca's face lit up, then she schooled her features to neutrality.  
"Tell Rebecca thanks for being my friend. And saving my daughter. Give... her... this." Molly tugged the silver ring off her finger. She wanted to give Rebecca something important, and this was the only thing she had. She didn't think great-grandmother Fiona would mind. "I forgive you for leaving."  
Molly dropped the ring and her card into Rebecca's hands. She walked away, carefully not looking back. Annie followed. Her eyes met Rebecca's for a moment: the same color eyes but so different in expression.  
"Wait up, Molly!"  
"Whew!" Molly looked shell-shocked, and like she might cry. "I'm not sure what I did back there."  
Annie put her arm around the singer, "I'm not either, but I think it was the right thing."  
"Y'know honey, I do too." Molly summoned a grin and ruffled Annie's hair.  
Annie didn't add the last thing she had accidentally seen over her shoulderas she ran after Molly.  
Rebecca slipped into Fi's room. "She knows."  
"No, she might not, you might not have to..." Fi protested incoherently.  
"No! No, it's ok. What she said means it's ok." Rebecca sat down on the end of the bed, her hands holding the ring and the card clasped before her face. She began to cry, tears falling on her lap, past her smile.  
  
--end episode two--  
  



	3. Second Chances ep 3

Disclaimer: all characters belong to Disney as far as I know. No copyright infringement is intended; no money is being made.  
Notes: just a note, I'm trying to be politically correct about magic and religion the same way the show was. Attitudes expressed in this story do not necessarily reflect my beliefs or my level of knowledge. bows Note 2 I don't remember what Rebecca's mom was named but I think it was something terribly cliché, so it's Esmerelda until I watch that ep again =P  
  
  
Second Chances  
Ep 3: Familiar  
  
Annie: Since ancient times people have believed in animals with special spirits and special powers. In Egypt sacred animals lived like pharos, and then were mummified like them. Witches had animal companions called familiars, and some Native American tribes believed in totem animals. They believed they could connect their spirits with the animal spirits, to borrow some of the animals' strengths and powers. To be as brave as a lion, or as clever as a fox, or as wise as an owl.  
  
Fi turned a page in her book, engrossed despite the aches in her arm. It was a volume of Celtic legends Jack had found for her in a used bookstore across the street from the hospital. She thought of the Sidhe, the fairy folk, maybe they were real, maybe she could see some someday. Grandma Kathleen and Grandpa Colin had mentioned wanting to take her to Ireland.  
There was a knock on the door and the nurse came in, "You still up Fiona?"  
"Yeah. Reading."  
"How are you feeling?"  
Fi groaned in reply, "Like I fell off a mountain and hit every rock on the way down!" And scared, scared that Rebecca had been wrong and a transfusion of her immortal blood would... Fi wasn't sure what she was afraid of. She could remember vague nightmares, saying, "want to die when I'm old and be with my dad..." and Rebecca snapping, "Well your choice is to take the chance or go see him now!" and everything was red, red, red. Fi wasn't sure if that had really happened or not, but Rebecca certainly would have yelled like that.  
The nurse held out a little dish of pills and a glass of water. "Doctor's orders are to take these and get some sleep. You need anything? Bathroom?"  
"Nah, I'm ok." Fi took her pills and lay back.  
"I'll check on you later."  
"'Kay, good night."  
"Good night." The nurse turned off the light and let herself out. Fi heard her hanging the 'do not disturb' sign on the doorknob and walking away. Then the hall was quiet.  
Fi remembered that afternoon, Rebecca sitting on the end of the bed crying from happiness and Annie hovering outside the door looking lost. Poor Annie, stuck without a clue. Maybe Rebecca wouldn't mind telling her.   
Dear Annie, welcome to my life, again....  
Fi looked up. A huge owl was hovering just outside the window, its spread wings wider than the window frame. Its eyes burned yellow. Fi could see the shadow of feathers on her blanket. The owl was so beautiful, like a tiger, so wild it took Fi's breath away.  
Then it pushed its wings down and lifted silently away. Fi thought she saw it dive like a shooting star over the city, but that must have been her imagination.  
  
Rebecca's family always lived in the same kinds of houses: anonymous brick or pastel painted, without porches so the neighbors wouldn't wonder why they never sat outside.  
Coming home from school, Rebecca noticed a cat sitting on the cement block they called a 'front stoop.' It was brown, with huge wide ears and green eyes, and it lounged across the stoop as if it owned the place. Rebecca offered her hand and the cat gave her fingers a cautious sniff. Then it sat up straight and poised like an Egyptian temple cat, and nodded regally.  
In Egyptian Rebecca murmured, "I thank you for your approval, noble spirit. I fear my parents will not share it."  
The cat stretched its neck up to lick her hand in a blessing any girl would have recognized.  
Her parents were waiting inside. The school and the hospital had called of course, to say what a hero she'd been. Rebecca had slept over at the hospital last night, not wanting to face them.  
"Rebecca." Her mother's voice, not pleased.  
"I'm home."  
"The school called. They told us what you did."  
"Look, dad, I was the only person there with the right blood type and we know from your research and from all of us going to the doctor that whatever makes us like this isn't medical, so there wasn't any danger!"  
"Probably!" Her father snapped, "There could well be effects that a test would not show. It was a chance you should not have taken!"  
"Would you have done it, if it hadn't been Molly's daughter?"  
Rebecca wasn't sure what her parents wanted to hear so she told the truth. "I'm not sure. Probably not."  
The cat had gotten in somehow; it jumped its front paws on Rebecca's leg and meowed, an amazingly loud sound for such a skinny creature.  
"Oh, what a pretty cat!" Esmerelda offered her hand for the cat to sniff.  
"He was out front when I came home. Does he have a tag?"  
"No. Perhaps there is an ad in the paper, if he is lost. He is thin enough to be a stray."  
The cat had successfully distracted only one parent. "We'll discuss your punishment at dinner." Her father said.  
"All right, dad." Rebecca picked up her backpack and took it up to her room. When she came down to get a snack she found her mother giving a saucer of tuna fish to the cat. He nibbled daintily, but the food vanished with surprising speed. When Rebecca came in he looked up and meowed a hello before going back to his meal.  
"It is almost as if he remembers you."  
"Mom, can we keep him if he doesn't have another home? Please?"  
"Perhaps."  
"I just noticed, he looks so much like Haidar. Do you remember? My favorite of the temple cats?"  
It was the wrong thing to say. Her mother visibly stiffened. "And I remember how much you cried when he died. Do you really want to suffer so again?"  
"Yes. Go back to your tuna, cat. You can be the second Haidar."  
Haidar meowed as if in agreement.  
"Your father is very angry."  
"I know."  
"What will you say to him?"  
Rebecca started looking for something to eat. English muffins, margarine, orange marmalade. Perfect. She started two muffins in the toaster. "I'll tell him maybe I did the wrong thing but it was the only thing I could do. Whatever punishment he decides, it's all right."  
"Does the arrival of a cat change you so much?"  
"Not just a cat." It was because of the silver ring snug on the third finger of her left hand, and the email tutorial program loading to her computer upstairs, and the thought that she might actually have friends again, Molly and Fi and maybe that girl with the yellow hair. She was different because she had things to look forward to.  
The toaster's timer rang and Rebecca snatched her muffins out, scorching her fingers as she transferred them to a plate. She spread on a little margarine and a lot of marmalade, and took her snack upstairs.  
  
Annie was sitting in her bed reading when Molly came in. "Hey honey."  
"Hi Molly, what's up?"  
"Fi called from the hospital. They're letting her come home tomorrow."  
"All right!" Annie waved the book in her hand, "Guess I'll have to return her library."  
"Guess so." Molly sat down backwards on Annie's desk chair, "Anything going on? You haven't been doing much besides reading."  
"It's nice to take a break from all the stuff that happens on the road, and Fi's got good books. Hey-can I ask you something?"  
"Sure."  
"Who was that girl?"  
Molly didn't ask which girl. "That's a tough question. I'm not really sure."  
Annie made a question face.  
"A long time ago I had a friend named Rebecca. The best friend I ever had until I met Rick. Then one day Rebecca left. Just gone, her house was empty like no one had ever lived there. I never found out what happened.  
"Just last year a girl who looked just like Rebecca came to see me, or maybe to see Fi, before a show. She said she was Rebecca's daughter-with the exact same name-and her mom was too busy to see me."  
"Weird."  
"I know. Fiona went to see her but wouldn't tell me what they talked about. Rebecca promised he'd come see me before the show, but..."  
Annie could guess. "She never came."   
"She never came. Fi took me to her house and it was empty, cleaned out. Just like the one my Rebecca left."  
"So she's the girl at the hospital? The Rebecca who's the daughter of your friend Rebecca and looks just like her."  
"Yes."  
"It's like a soap opera or something!"  
"I know. So strange, I could almost believe my Rebecca cloned herself somehow... to be another girl's best friend."  
"Or just to help Fi." Annie said, and carefully didn't look at Molly to see her reaction. "I hope she emails you."  
"I do too. Whatever Rebecca's secrets are, she's still my friend. I still, you know, love her."  
"I know exactly." Annie said. Sally, her friends from the island, her friends in all the places she'd lived, her new adopted 'sis' Fi, the boys... she knew.  
"Here-have you got the Another World cd?"  
"Of course, I got it off the internet while we were living in Paraguay." Annie reached back to pull the cd off her rack. "Want to autograph it for me?"  
Molly laughed and signed the lyrics booklet with a silver gel pen. "Listen to track fourteen. And go t sleep before midnight, ok? Ned and Irene are watching a movie but it's almost over, then they'll be coming to bed."  
Annie yawned. "Don't worry, I never play electric guitar after dark."  
"I know, I know, unlike Carey who they raised. Good night."  
"Night Molly." Annie carefully book marked Fi's book and put it down. She turned off the light and got into bed, then remembered the cd. Track fourteen was the Rebecca song; she'd listened to it in jungle camps where the only other sound was rain on tent canvas, but she wanted to hear it again now. She turned on a flashlight and looked for her cd player. When she lay down again it was with her headphones on and Molly's silky voice in her ears.  
Rebecca moves across the world...  
  
  
  
  



	4. Second Chances ep 4

Disclaimer: characters belong to Disney....  
  
Stormy says: This is not exactly the story I wanted to write. I should really pull it all apart and redo it differently... and find another way to reintroduce Rebecca, the way I did it sounded a lot better in my head than it does on paper... but perfect or not, this is the story that's getting written.   
  
So Weird-Second Chances  
Ep 4: vampire (reprise)  
  
Fi was back home at last, and happy to be there. But trying to mouse left-handed on her laptop was a pain. She clicked open her email. There was one from Rebecca, probably a technical question like the last few had been...  
  
Dear Fiona, I got the strangest email; it's from a group of vampires who say they want to meet me. They seem to know about my family. Is this a spam or what?  
  
Well that was different.  
Fi typed, "I never heard of a vampire spam. Forward it to me?"  
A few minutes later a forwarded message came in. Fi noticed Rebecca's name in the reply bar was 'Rebecca J Habib' and wondered what the J was for. She opened the message and read under her breath.  
"Dear Miss Habib, you don't know us but we have watched your family for years and believe we have something to offer you. You are a near-immortal, one of less than twenty alive in the world. We are part of a much larger community of true immortals, people you could come to know without the fear of losing them in the blink of an eye. We are vampires but you have nothing to be afraid of. Please be our guest Sunday night at the address below. Bring friends if you fear for your safety. We look forward to seeing you."  
Underneath was an address. "Whoa." Fi said aloud. She pulled up a reply window and typed clumsily, "vampires are real at least I think so. I'm sure you'll be in danger if you go. I don't know how they know about your family."  
Sent.  
Rebecca opened instagab.  
Rebecat01: will you go with me?  
Rockerbaby: YOU SHOULDN'T GO  
Rockerbaby: Besides, I'm still in a cast  
Rockerbaby: not up to running away  
Rebecat01: I really want to see what they have to say.  
Anniegirl has joined the gab.  
Anniegirl: You talking about the vampire mail?  
Rockerbaby: Yeah  
Rebecat01: I'm going.  
Anniegirl: I can go along  
Rockerbaby: If these are the same vampires I met, they can stun you just by looking at you, and garlic and crosses don't work.  
Rockerbaby: It's dangerous, Annie  
Anniegirl: don't worry, I'm scared to death  
Rebecat01: Neither of you have to come.  
Anniegirl: no way are you going to meet vampires alone!  
Rebecat01: I'm going.  
Rebecat01 has left the gab  
Anniegirl: I believe it's dangerous  
Anniegirl: That's why I have to go  
Rockerbaby: Do you get that I'm just worried about you guys?  
Anniegirl: of course  
Rockerbaby: Thanks for getting it  
Rockerbaby: Mom says come in if you want to talk about a trip to the mall.   
Anniegirl: I'm always interested in that! Talk to you in person!  
Anniegirl has left the gab  
Rockerbaby has left the gab  
  
Rebecca scowled and slapped her hand lightly over the computer in anger. Children. If they'd had her life they would understand that it didn't matter if it was dangerous. It would be worth it. Why had she bothered telling them at all?  
  
Sunday was a week away, Fi thought. She'd have her ankle brace off by then. Able to run away from vampires. But really, Fi didn't want to see any more vampires, even to find out if they were the same ones as in Jack's crazy OSSN thing. It had been easier to get excited about the paranormal before she'd seen some things, like vampires, and the troll, and faceless black things that came boiling out of a hole in the air.  
But maybe there was a way to bring her father back, if she just learned all she could. Nautilus shells and magic spells, if she just kept trying.  
  
Sunday night Rebecca came over after dinner to ask if Annie could come to an evening grand opening at the museum. Fi asked if she could go along.  
"You sure?" Annie asked.  
"Yeah."  
"Come or stay." Rebecca said impatiently.  
"They came.  
  
The vampire gathering was in something like a bar, a high class bar like Annie had only seen in gangster movies. Rebecca got them in by flashing a printout of her email at the guy at the door. Inside it was all polished wood, ratty red velvet, and mirrors. The mirror all along both walls reflected an image of three girls walking alone through the room.  
They were far from alone. Pale people filled the booths and tables. They swirled glasses and watched in silence as the girls came in. Some were children, some adult, some old, but all were strangely beautiful.  
And their eyes. Eyes like the panther's, Annie thought dizzily, yellow hunter's eyes. She was terrified.  
Icy hands grabbed her shoulder and a voice murmured in her ear, "So you are 'Annie' are you?" The other vampires spoke also. Their voices whispered like wind over leaves, or rain in a jungle night she'd forgotten. Come in from the rain, Anika.  
"Come in from the rain."  
Annie jerked out of the grip, "Get out of my head!"  
How much time had she lost? Rebecca was talking to a tall vampire, and Fi stood behind her. Annie ran across the room so fast she almost collided with them.  
"They can read our minds."  
"I know." Fi looked as rattled as Annie felt.  
"Can we get out of here?"  
Rebecca was indifferent to the rustling voices. She was listening to the vampire who seemed to be the leader, and who was telling her candidly about a vampire's powers. Fi had shifted from being scared to mentally taking notes.  
Annie was grabbed again, gently, but again the grip was like iron. She squirmed but couldn't get away.  
"I just wanted to talk to you." It was the same one as before. He looked like a teenager and a little less... vampiric than most of the others. His skin was pale brown instead of dead white.  
"About what?"  
"Sunlight. I haven't seen sunlight in so many years. What is it like?"  
Annie wished she could see the sun now. "I-it's brighter than a lamp, like a huge fire that makes the sky blue. The light is golden, like water that glows. Golden and warm."  
"Like you."  
"Huh?"  
Claw like hands combed through her hair. "Golden. And warm."  
"Um."   
"You're shaking. I just want to remember life."  
If this had been a human he would have gotten a slap across the face by now. Annie was shaking; this vampire was creeping her out but there was something compelling about him. Some need in his yellow eyes that drew Annie's sympathy even as it frightened her.  
"Tell me your name." She said.  
"James. Just James. Nothing so interesting as yours."  
"My name is Annie, not that interesting."  
"That's not your whole name. Ask your family. We all know, everyone knows."  
"How did you know we'd come? You knew I'd come."  
"The king told us you were coming. The three of you."  
"King of what?" Annie tried to ignore the way he was curling around her, but tension crept into her voice. "Of the vampires? Of the-spirit world? Let me go!"  
Then he bit her. It was so unexpected she almost didn't fight. Then she realized, and wrenched her head away and started screaming.  
The vampires hardly reacted, like having a hollering human among them was perfectly normal.   
"Annie!" Fi elbowed her way through the circle of vampires, "You all right?"  
Annie had to stop and breathe anyway. "Yeah-I think-but that one thinks I'm lunch!"  
The one called James hissed, "I wasn't going to hurt you. I just wanted a taste of sunlight."  
Annie snapped, "Well if you said so before and asked permission I might have said ok! But we'll never know now!"  
They were packed in like sardines, two living people and a crowd of undead. Hadn't the room been bigger before?  
"It is so time to get out of here!"  
"Oh yeah. Rebecca! We're leaving! Rebecca!"  
They heard Rebecca call, "Coming!" She was having trouble getting through the crowd, then she stopped to talk to somebody.  
Someone said, "You're staying." And suddenly everyone was trying to grab them. Fi screamed, Annie screamed, Fi kicked... it didn't do any good.  
Annie was buried in icy hands, couldn't even move. The vampires were completely silent. Somewhere Fi was shouting, "Annie! Annie!"  
A low voice rumbled, "Faith."  
Faith? Annie grabbed for the first thought she had. What do I have faith in? The panther. My friends! I am not going to die here!  
She was free. The vampires had been shoved back a good yard, and they couldn't come any closer. Fi was just standing up. Vampires recoiled away from her too. "What'd we do?" She gasped.  
"Faith! Think of something you have faith in!"  
"Uh." Fi held up her left hand, and the ring she wore sparkled, driving the vampires back just like a cross in a movie. Then her face changed. "Rebecca? Rebecca!"  
Rebecca was locked in the leader's arms and her blood ran down his face. Her eyes were open and she was looking right at Fi, she must have heard them shouting about faith but she wasn't using the power.  
Fi and Annie joined hands and fought their way to where they could grab Rebecca and drag her out. Then they ran.  
A few streets over they had to stop to catch their breath.  
Fi was gasping out, "Hey-everyone ok?"  
"Yes." Rebecca said. There was blood all down the front of her shirt and on her hands.  
"Are we going to be vampires?" Annie held her hand over the wound on her neck. It didn't even hurt.  
"No. We won't. I'll email you both. I'm going home."  
"What was that all about in there? Why didn't you come right away?" Fi demanded.  
"I was talking to him, ok? I didn't know they were about to attack you and I had another question. Ok?" Rebecca whirled, her hair flying. It had come down from its bun when she was bitten. She ran into the dark and was gone.  
"W-was she attacked, do you think, or did she ask to be changed?" Annie asked nobody. "You all right?"  
"Yeah. Are you sure you are?"  
"I'm not going to sleep for a month."  
"Me either." Fi grinned. "At least we can be scared stiff together."  
"Yeah."  
There was a noise behind them. Both girls jumped. James was standing there.  
"What do you want?" Fi asked.  
James smiled. "Just after you left the king spoke to us. No vampire who was in that building will come after you."  
"What about the ones who weren't?"  
"We haven't told them about you. Other than that," James cackled, "Life is dangerous."  
"James why did that happen? Why did they attack us?"  
"Your other friend is a lifegiver. Her blood could nourish us all for centuries of daylight. And the king told us to keep you, Sunlight."  
Annie blinked. "What about Fi?"  
"A meal."  
The two girls looked at each other. Fi said, "Ok. Whatever. We're going now."  
"Hey-thanks for telling us." Annie said.  
"Good luck, Sunlight."  
  
Fi and Annie went home. They used the bathroom on the bus to get cleaned up then snuck inside. Annie put her sleeping bag on the floor of Fi's room. Fi raided the kitchen for garlic and put pieces by every window and door she could get to. It couldn't hurt. Then they went to bed.  
Annie's last thought was that she just might be tired enough to sleep after all.   
Fi's last thought was how her ring had driven back the vampires. Faith. Why hadn't Rebecca been able to do it?  
  
  
  
  



	5. Second Chances ep 5

Disclaimer: characters belong to Disney.  
  
So Weird-Second Chances  
Ep 5: Interlude  
  
Fi dreamed that Aunt Melinda was making troll soup in the kitchen. Carey was confessing that it had always been his ambition to be a cauliflower when she woke up.  
Just in time to see something weird. In her sleeping bag on the floor Annie stirred and moaned, dreaming. The panther appeared from nowhere and bowed over her so its whiskers brushed her face. Then it looked up, straight at Fi with its unsettling gold-green eyes. Seeming ok with what it saw, it lay down on the floor and disappeared.  
Fi decided it was time to get up. Breakfast sounded like a better option than lazing around with a maybe-there maybe-not maybe-invisible big cat in the room. It was after eight, anyway.  
She found Carey sitting at the kitchen table with his music binder open in front of him. "Hey Fi, if you see Annie before I do, tell her this song needs a flute part."  
"I'll tell her when she gets up." Fi said from the fridge, "You just wrote that?"  
"Yeah. It's called 'the odds of faith' it's about how hard it is to believe in things in this crazy world." Carey shrugged as if to say the world didn't seem so crazy to him.  
"Sounds cool."  
"I'll let you hear it when it's done. Well, I'll let everyone hear it. You need help over there?"  
Fi was pouring milk with her left hand. She said "No." and immediately spilled it. Carey got up to get paper towels.  
"I am going crazy from this cast."  
"Look on the bright side, at least you can walk now."  
"Yeah." At long last Fi got her drink of milk.  
"So how was the exhibit opening last night?"  
"It was cool. It's about Neanderthals, there's a whole village you can walk through with life size people and animals, and a bunch of skull reproductions and stuff." All this she'd heard from Rebecca. Then she went off into other things. "Did you know Neanderthals had brains even bigger than ours? The skulls are bigger in the back so they had different kinds of intelligence. Some people think they might have been telepathic. Either way they were as human as us but not us. Isn't that cool?"  
"Totally. You sound like my anthropology teacher high on something."  
"But it is cool."  
"I'm not arguing." Carey said, grinning. "Oh! My mom's starting to hint it's time we get back on the road, so you know."  
"Ok. I'll try to convince my mom I'm fine so you guys can go. I hope the tour isn't too messed up."  
"Not your fault you fell off a mountain. Your mom was really freaked."  
"Yeah I know."  
"So how's this sound?" Carey asked and sang a few lines of his song.  
"I like it."  
"Need my guitar..."  
They fiddled with the song for a while, then Molly appeared and pitched in. After a while Fi excused herself and went upstairs.  
Annie, dressed and with her hair tied up in a towel, was flopped on her sleeping bag reading a book. She turned the cover up so Fi could see it: one of the books about exposing fake mediums. "This is pretty interesting."  
"Yeah. I think I might like to do that kind of thing later, like after I graduate." Fi went to her closet. The box she wanted was on the top shelf labeled 'weird stuff' in permanent marker.   
"I wouldn't. Too much being around rotten people."  
"Can you get this box down for me?"  
"Sure." Annie jumped up and pulled the 'weird stuff' box down, almost causing a landslide of cardboard in the process.  
"I'll clean the closet someday." Fi said sheepishly.  
"You should see mine. I'm going downstairs.'  
"Ok. Carey wants to talk music anyway."  
Hearing that, Annie left the book behind.  
Fi grinned and opened the box. On top was the Roswell-alien-something, and Fi said hello to it. It said "xyugh" back. Under that was a head of wheat from a real crop circle and a plastic bag of gross dried-up ooze from a swimming pool where aliens had landed. There were letters, and printed emails and other souvenirs. On the bottom was the book. It was almost too fat for her to lift one-handed, but she got it out and open on her desk.  
She could read the words again. After casting that last spell in Colorado the book had become gibberish, even the Gaelic unrecognizable, but now it was clear. Each spell still had only one word to tell what, exactly, it did. Fi was looking for anything to do with vampires or immortals. There might be something in the book that would give Rebecca an option besides becoming undead.  
Some of the spells she passed by looked interesting, like WEALTH and BEAUTY and MUSE. Others made no sense at all. Fi got a third of the way through the book without finding anything useful looking.  
Then she found something very intriguing.  
REJOIN  
I tear wide the doors my ancestors closed  
Break the lock forever  
With no fear in my heart  
Bring the worlds of spirit and flesh  
Together once more  
Fi read it again. Did it say what she thought it said?  
Fi wasn't sure why she hadn't studied the book before, but it probably had to do with being afraid of finding something like this.  
How could she find out what the spell really did?  
Birdlike shrieks heralded the arrival of her two cousins, just home from school. "Hey Fi, hey Fi!" They ran into the room, collided, and tumbled onto the bed.  
"Whoa, Maggie, Miranda, slow down! What's up?"  
"We saw fairies!"  
"Fairies in the dirt-hills behind the park. They're this tall-" Maggie held her hands a foot apart, "They wear green leaf clothes!"  
"But they ran away from us like they were scared, I dunno why, I'd never hurt a fairy!"  
"Me neither but I guess they didn't know! But anyway,"  
"You got books on fairies? Can we borrow them?"  
Fi took a moment to catch up with them. "Sure, raid the bookcase. I think that purple one on the end has stuff about contacting fairies; try it first."  
"Ok!"  
"Thanks!" They dove for the books.  
"Fi? Oh, hi Maggie hi Miranda." Annie appeared in the doorway on hands and knees like she'd just run up the stairs. "Fi, they're having that discussion about going on with the tour, like do we go now, do we go later, maybe you want to be in on it."  
"Right. Thanks." Fi shoved The Book under her bed and went downstairs.  
  
From: Rebecat01  
To: Rockerbaby  
Cc: Anniegirl  
Subject: vampires  
  
1 there are more than one kind of vampire.  
2 they can't go out in daylight.  
3 religious symbols etc. only work if the user has true faith.  
4 vampires do not need native earth or coffins, just a protected place.  
5 they need blood every day but do not need to kill the donor.  
6 they can eat human food but it doesn't give them nourishment.  
7 their fangs are retractable  
8 becoming a vampire takes several nights of exchanging blood.  
9 a stake through the heart will kill a vampire, as will burning or beheading.  
10 there is no known way to turn a vampire back into a living person.  
  
And that was all there was to that email. Fi sighed and worried.  
Annie puttered around packing. The bus was leaving the next day. Fi would miss them, but getting back to her normal routine would be nice-as much as she could get back into it with one arm in a sling.  
There had been no sign of vampires, though Fi had carefully checked around the house for footprints. She supposed it was silly, and if the vampires wanted her they would get her, but she wasn't going without a fight. Maggie and Miranda knew about the vampires and they were perfectly content with the garlic in the windows. If faith drove off vampires, perhaps the girls' faith would help keep them safe.  
"See if you can stop Rebecca from going back to visit the vampires!"  
"I'll try." Fi promised, "But if she wants to go there's not much I can do."  
"I think that one James was kind of all right though. He just had a weird vampire crush on me."  
"Very weird."  
"Don't worry, I like my guys tall, dark, and living." Annie said with a grin.  
"Good taste."  
"You see anything else of mine around?"  
Fi looked, "Nope. You can borrow that book if you want. It's pretty rare; I got that copy from the author."  
Annie turned to the front of the book. Written inside the cover was 'Good luck, Fiona' and a signature. "Are you friends with him?"  
"Not friends. Mutual respect I guess."  
There was a call from downstairs and Annie hefted her backpack and sleeping bag and they went down to say goodbye.  
  
  
  



	6. Second Chances ep 6

Disclaimer: characters belong to Disney. So, probably, does everything from here to the moon.  
  
So Weird-Second Chances  
Ep 6: Fairies  
  
Fi read the magic book until her eyes ached from looking at the strange words, then marked her place and put the book away. She had not marked the REJOIN spell. It would be hard to find again; this book had no page numbers. Fi had noticed the next spell seemed to be a countercharm-despite the 'forever' in the first one.  
Maggie and Miranda flitted in talking about fairies. Fi didn't pay much attention until they said they were going out to the 'dirthills' that night since it was a full moon and the fairies might be out dancing. That woke Fi up; a midnight outing in December was not a good idea! She said so.  
"But we have to!"  
"It's important!"  
"Dinah's coming with us."  
Fi hadn't noticed Dinah standing in the door of her room, but that was no surprise. Maggie and Miranda could have upstaged a full marching band and Dinah was always quiet. Today she was wearing her old pink coat and a scarf around her neck.  
"Hey. You can come in."  
"Thankyou." One word.  
"You want to go look for the fairies too Dinah?"  
"Yes."  
Miranda jumped in, "Of course! We all believe in them!"  
"Please come with us?" Dinah said hesitantly.  
"Guys, it's really not a good idea. It's December, it's cold enough during the day. Besides you don't know what you might meet, there's people out there worse than bad fairies. You know?"  
The girls nodded.  
Fi frowned. There was something strange going on; the girls looked serious, not their usual M-and-M-up-to-something look.  
"We know Fi. We'll wear lots of coats and take pepper for humans and garlic for vampires."  
"Pepper?"  
"You throw it in their face. I read it in a book."  
"O-kaaaaaay." Fi said. "So why do you want me along?"  
"Weird stuff likes you." Maggie told her.  
"And what if I don't come?"  
"We'll go anyway." Dinah said.  
"Yeah, and if you tell mom, we'll go next time there's a full moon! Or the time after that or the time after that!" Maggie said fiercely-real fierce, not game fierce.  
"Ok, what are you guys up to? Is it really fairies or something else?" Fi was just guessing, but the looks that went across three faces confirmed her suspicion.  
"Do we tell her?" Maggie asked her sister and her friend.  
"Yes." Said Fi.  
The three little girls huddled and muttered together, then Maggie turned and said, "Only if you promise not to tell anyone. Absolutely a hundred percent promise no matter what."  
"Ok."  
"No, promise!"  
"Ok, I absolutely a hundred percent promise I won't tell anyone."  
"No matter what." Dinah prompted.  
"No matter what." Fi repeated, "Now what is it?"  
Dinah said, "I know fairies steal children. I want them to steal me."  
"Why?"  
"My mom... hits me."  
Oh. My. God. Dinah often had bruises on her arms (she said she was clumsy) she'd never invited anyone over (she said her parents were always busy) Fi hadn't suspected. "You mean really? All the times you said you fell down?"  
"Mmhm."  
"We have to tell someone." Fi said without thinking. She was instantly swarmed with yells and accusing glares.  
"No! You promised! They wouldn't believe me and if they did mom would just get in trouble!"  
"You promised, Fi!"  
"You promised, Fi!"  
"I don't want anything to happen to mom! Can't I just go with the fairies?"  
Fi was hearing them, but she was also hearing her mother say, "Is it a secret that could get someone hurt? Then you have to tell an adult." She tried to think of the right thing to say. "How about this? I'll go with you, we'll try to find the fairies. But if they can't take you or don't want to... there are lots of kinds of fairies you know, some don't steal kids at all and some are nasty... then we tell Aunt Melinda about your mom and see what she says. Ok?"  
Dinah thought about it. Fi turned away to give them a chance talk. Her bookcase was half empty; they must have snuck in at some point to snatch more books. That was ok; Fi didn't care where her books went as long as they came back sometime. What really scared her was how Dinah was so set on a mystical answer to her problems that she didn't want a real-world answer.  
"Ok." Dinah said finally, "That sounds ok."  
"Yay, we're going tonight!"  
"Maggie!" Miranda bopped her sister, "There's more important stuff than just adventures going on!"  
"I know. Let's go get our gear!"  
Maggie and Miranda left so fast they seemed to vanish into thin air. Dinah followed more slowly.  
Fi flopped on her bed with her laptop on her tummy. She opened it and started an email. Annie, I can't tell you all the details but you won't believe what my cousins just brought me....  
  
It was cold, and windy, and damp, but at least it wasn't raining. Fi pulled her scarf up over her face and her hat down over her ears. By daylight this had seemed like a bad idea; now it seemed like a terrible one! "You guys sure we want to do this?"  
"Mmhm!" Dinah nodded. She was hugging herself and bouncing up and down to stay warm.  
"You all have keys so we can get back in? And flashlights?"  
"Yes."  
"Got them."  
Fi pulled the front door closed the final bit so the lock engaged, and they set off. The streetlights let them see where they were going, but it was eerie walking down a street of dark windows. The spaces between the houses faded into black gulfs. Miranda, Maggie, and Dinah huddled up behind Fi and Fi wished she was as brave as they thought. She had outgrown her fear of monsters in the dark, but then she'd seen the air come burning open and faceless dark things come pouring out... and now shadows held terror once more.  
But this night, nothing came.  
Nothing came.  
A shadow detached itself from the dark behind a tree. The girls stopped.  
"We see you. You can come out." Fi said. Flashlights trained on the figure, who shaded his eyes. "James?"  
"Good evening."  
"Fi do you know this guy?"  
"Sort of. Good evening James. Sorry to tell you, but Annie and the tour bus left this morning."  
"Ah." The vampire sighed, sadly. "Ah children, don't be afraid, I've fed tonight. I just wondered why you were here, and wanted to see Annie."  
"I'll tell her you asked about her." Fi said lamely, then she had a crazy idea. "Do you know about any fairies around the park?"  
"They're there. They don't speak to my kind but they might speak to you."  
"Um, why are you so interested in Annie? Just because you like her?"  
James hissed a laugh. "Everyone who looks at her knows what she is. Everyone of my world. But I won't tell you."  
"Fi can we go? It's cold!"  
"Yeah. We have to go."  
James smiled and waved, "Have a nice night Fiona."  
"Yeah, you too." But he had already vanished.  
"Who was that?" Dinah whispered.  
"James is..." Fi shrugged and told the truth. "A vampire. But I don't think he wants to hurt us."  
They had started walking again. Fi shivered and realized James had been in short sleeves.  
"You know some scary people."  
"It was not my idea to meet him. Here's the park, where do we go now?"  
"Through here." Maggie squeezed under the chain holding two halves of a gate closed and the others went after her. Fi hadn't been in here before but she remembered heaps of dirt and rocks and piles of moldering boards. "Be careful where you step."  
"Ssh!"  
"Sorry."  
They sneaked forward, trying to walk quietly. Suddenly Fi smelled a warm breeze, smelled flowers. She pulled the scarf off her face for another sniff and then they heard laughter.  
"It's them!" Miranda whispered and promptly forgot the need to be quiet, "Fairies don't be afraid! We won't hurt you!"  
A voice with a strange accent that made Fi think of violins said, "We know and welcome to our fire Maggie and Miranda Phillips, Fiona Phillips O'Shannon, Dinah Crew."  
"You got our names wrong," Maggie started but her sister hushed her.  
They followed the scent and the music to a little open space well hidden in the middle of the lot. In this place it was warm, and tiny rainbow colored flowers sprouted from the ground. There were cats and fairies sitting all around. The fairies were about a foot tall as Maggie had said. They were dressed in green leaf clothes and they glowed.  
But brighter than their light was the warm glow that came from a little cave cut incongruously into a heap of construction junk.  
"What brings you to our gathering?" asked the same fairy who had spoken before. He sat on a rock like a throne.  
"Go on, tell them." Miranda whispered.  
Dinah sat down and the cats crowded into her lap. "I asked them to come with me. Are you fairies who steal children?"  
The fairy stood up, and suddenly he was the size of a normal-very tall-human man. "We might be. Do you want to be stolen?"  
Dinah whispered, "Yes please."  
He reached out a long hand and unwrapped Dinah's scarf, revealing a hand-sized bruise on her shoulder. Dinah winced. Fi gasped. The other fairies muttered among themselves.  
"Who did this?"  
"My mother. Because I tried to throw away her-"  
"Her mom does this all the time!"  
"You have to take her!"  
The fairy's green eyes looked over Maggie and Miranda's earnest faces and Fi's horrified expression. "Yes Dinah Crew, we will take you if that is what you want."  
Fi said, "Wait. Tell us who you are, and what will happen to Dinah."  
"Peace, Fiona. This is not the first time, or the last, that we will take a child from unworthy parents or one who has been forgotten by the world."  
A little fairy stood up and said, "Sharin you're terrible at this. I'll bring the Queen." She ducked into the cave and returned a moment later with a tiny beautiful woman in a golden gown. The tiny woman became large but somehow the little space wasn't crowded.   
"I am Alara and this is my son Sharin. Dinah-child you are welcome among us. There are only few other human children under the hills."  
"And, you won't do anything to my mom?"  
It was hard to imagine the perfect queen hurting anybody. "Only watch her, and see if she changes enough that you would want to return."  
"I could come back to this world later?"  
"Yes."  
"What's it like down there?"  
"Look for yourself."  
Dinah scrunched down to look into the cave. "Oooooh! It's beautiful! And down there, even if I do bad things, even lots of them...."  
"Not one of us would hurt a child."  
"I want to go."  
Fi said, "You sure? There are other things we could do."  
"I'm sure."  
Maggie and Miranda crowded to hug their friend. "Goodbye!"  
"We'll miss you!"  
"Good luck!"  
"Can we see down there?"  
Sharin said, "You can watch us go but you cannot visit. The three of you have families and friends waiting." Then he held out his hand to Dinah, "Shall we go?'  
Dinah stood up spilling kittens off her lap, "Mmhm! Bye guys! Goodbye Fi, thank you!"  
Sharin and Dinah walked towards the cave and space seemed to stretch so the cave was larger or they were smaller and the other fairies and the cats followed the two of them into a tunnel hung with lush green vines.  
Queen Alara went last and waited just inside the cave as Fi and Maggie and Miranda looked.  
Fi saw green hills, trees, and flowers everywhere like a land of eternal spring. Bright waterfalls glittered down mountains seen through air so clear Fi felt she could reach through and touch them. Between trees stood a pavilion of golden poles draped with white silk and around and inside it fairies danced and talked, and wove clothes of flowers and dipped their cups into the clear streams for a drink....  
"Can we come visit? Please? Just for a minute?" Maggie begged.  
"Oh please! We wouldn't bother you!"  
"Just for a little while." Fi whispered. She thought she'd never wanted anything as much as she wanted to be part of that world, to touch it, just once.  
The fairy queen's smile outshone even her world, "No, not even for a little while. But I'll give you the kind of visit you can have."  
A sweet wind blew from the cave and Fi closed her eyes for a moment to savor the smell....  
  
She half woke long enough to realize she was in her own bed, in her pajamas, and it was wonderfully warm. Fi snuggled her blankets closer around her and went back to sleep.  
And dreamed of fairyland.  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
